A group of tech and search firms led by Microsoft has lodged a complaint with the EU regarding Google's "predatory" distribution of Android, claiming the free OS is disrupting the market and making it harder for others to compete.

The complaint comes via Fairsearch.org [PDF], a consortium of tech companies that includes Microsoft, Nokia, Oracle and several online search and travel companies. They are not happy that Android's becoming ever more dominating in Europe, thanks to Google's open source freebie OS and its popularity with hardware makers.

It's quite an aggressive complaint, with the angered partners saying in their letter:

"Google achieved its dominance in the smartphone operating system market by giving Android to devicemakers for 'free.' But in reality, Android phone makers who want to include must-have Google apps such as Maps, YouTube or Play are required to pre-load an entire suite of Google mobile services and to give them prominent default placement on the phone, the complaint says. This disadvantages other providers, and puts Google’s Android in control of consumer data on a majority of smartphones shipped today.

"Google's predatory distribution of Android at below-cost makes it difficult for other providers of operating systems to recoup investments in competing with Google’s dominant mobile platform."